The father of English fiction (Daniel Defoe)--Richardson, and the novel of sentiment.--From Fielding to Jane Austen.--Jane Austen and the novel of social comedy.--The Waverley novels.--Scott's greatness.--William Makepeace Thackeray.--Characteristics of Thackeray.--Charles Dickens.--The greatness of Dickens.--The Brontës.--George Eliot.--Charles Reade.--Charles Kingsley.--George Meredith.--Thomas Hardy.--Robert Louis Stevenson.--Religion in fiction.--American novelists.--Concluding survey